spots on my cattleya, ok or not ok?

[Joyce]

We bought 4 new Orchids of the Cattleya variety and we have never grown any orchids before. One of the plants has a great deal of black blotches on the leaves. Not fuzzy, but defined. Not on the edges, but on the main part of the leaves. One other orchid has brown, black on the tip but I attribute this to a water or sun issues as I see on my other house plants. It's the one with the unusual black "things" on the leaves that I am concerned about. Roses get "black spot", I spray with Orthenex, it stops the problem and the rose continues. A friend recommended spraying with Physan 20 once a month. Would this be correct?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Joyce

[justatypn]

Joyce sounds to me like you have a fungus, in which catt's do often have. If you know for sure it does not look like sunspots, I would isolate this from the others, not to add more fuel to the fire so to speak. Physan is a good product use this according to directions and things will be fine. I do not think these spots are from misting as mine would be very prone to the spots if this is the case, unlike oncidiums, which I call freckles from misting.

Water your cattleya's weekly, fertilize bi-weekly with 1/2 the amount of fert suggested, also a monthly flushing of the bark within the pot of course to wash away unwanted salts and ca-ca-mung. If you can take a of your ailing orchid. From what others have told me, if you can grow african violets you can grow orchids...now that is not so true for myself, african violets hate me no different than one of our members having a touchy with dendrobiums...right Tony..

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[smartie2000]

Yup physan 20 is the product most recommened for these problems

[Ironwood]

smartie, is physan 20 available in Canada?

[Matthews]

Originally Posted by Ironwood

smartie, is physan 20 available in Canada?

Yes it is, I pick some up at a orchid store in Vancouver. I am not sure where you would find it in a normal store though.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Joyce

We bought 4 new Orchids of the Cattleya variety and we have never grown any orchids before. One of the plants has a great deal of black blotches on the leaves. Not fuzzy, but defined. Not on the edges, but on the main part of the leaves. One other orchid has brown, black on the tip but I attribute this to a water or sun issues as I see on my other house plants. It's the one with the unusual black "things" on the leaves that I am concerned about.

Joyce

Joyce, I'll offer a second opinion. Little black spots often occur on Cats, Brassias, Oncidiums, etc. when they have been (or are being) overhead misted. They don't like that. Folks try to increase humidity this way, but you're better off living with the lower humidity and quit misting anything other that Phals or certain Paphs or Phrags. The black or brown ends of the leaves are usually due to not flushing the fertilizer from the pots. It is VERY common and I get it too, but I just trim off those ends. I fertilize with every watering, so the salts sit in pots most of time for me.

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[Ross]

Oh, and Physan 20 won't hurt if it turns out to not be fungus related. It is so mild it is safe. It really won't do anything for a fungus or virus inside the leaves as it is too mild. It is meant for mold and mold-like growths such as the junk that grows sometimes on outsides of pots that are too damp.

[Oscarman]

Joyce, it would be great if you can post a picture.

Last time I bought Physan, it came from Charlies Greenhouse (US)

[Joyce]

Wow, great response. Thanks. I ordered 2 oz of Phyton 27 as it's systemic. I read about Physan 20 and both sounded good. It's just that systemic did it for me. If this doesn't work, I'll try the other. Man, it's expensive stuff. Imagine getting this in a large greenhouse! My husband cut off a piece of a leaf and looked at it under a microscope. It's black spot no doubt.

[justatypn]

Little black spots often occur on Cats, Brassias, Oncidiums, etc. when they have been (or are being) overhead misted. They don't like that.

I do agree with you Ross but, I have never had a problem with black spots on my catts now oncidiums are absolutely another story , mild but visiable. I mist mine daily sometimes 2 x's a day but with good air circulation blackspots are minimal.

Microscope...hummmm...another tool for the orchid shelf